When Barbara MacIsaac puts on her black hologram wristband every morning, she feels like she’s just loaded a pack of batteries.

“I can’t really even explain it,” said MacIsaac, a restaurant owner from San Juan Capistrano. “I just have this energy level that I’ve never had before. The only thing that’s changed is I’ve started wearing my bracelet.”

MacIsaac, 53, even tied one to her dog’s collar and said he’s moving faster too.

“People say it’s all in your head. Well, who cares,” she said. “If I feel better, what else matters?”

Two Orange County companies, Power Balance and EFX, command the market in hologram wristbands and pendants, which cost about $30 and claim to optimize the body’s own frequencies to promote balance, flexibility and strength. Both brands have celebrity athlete endorsements and sell products online, at sporting good stores and at public events.

Power Balance declined to give sales figures, but EFX said it has sold more than 2 million products.

Josh Rodarmel, one of the founders of Laguna Niguel-based Power Balance, said the technology is based on Eastern philosophy to allow users to achieve their best.

“It absolutely is never to be a substitute for hard work,” Rodarmel said. “It’s about making you the best you can be.”

Neither EFX nor Power Balance have sought approval from the Food and Drug Administration for medical use, so they are not allowed to market benefits such as pain relief or treatment of a health condition. But some customers say the wristbands have relieved symptoms from bursitis to nerve pain.

Doctors say the holograms don’t work, but can trigger the placebo effect, where about one-third of patients will experience relief of symptoms from a sham treatment.

“If you believe you’re taking something that’s going to decrease your pain, you probably are going to get a decrease in pain,” said Dr. John Heydt, who specializes in sports medicine at UC Irvine. “It may elevate your normal endorphins. If you feel better wearing these, they’re not harmful.”

Donna Wrede of Ladera Ranch suffered pain after two wrist surgeries from a fall. She tried on her daughter’s bracelet more than a year ago without knowing what it was.

“About 45 minutes into it, I’m going, ‘Wait a second.’ The burning pain in my arm had diminished,” said Wrede, 66. “It was not a placebo effect for me at all. I had no expectation of it.”

She said the pain comes back when she takes off the wristband.

Heydt said he believes the mind seeks explanations for events that are not necessarily related.

“Say that you have miserable knee pain and you wear this bracelet and for whatever reason you didn’t have pain that day. Now you actually kick in this placebo effect,” he said. “I’m saying these could be random, unrelated events.”

Heydt said people who want to improve balance and flexibility in a way that undeniably produces results should try yoga or tai chi.

“There’s so many things out there that we know really work,” Heydt said. “There is no replacement for good, healthy habits. Trends come and go.”

Others who have tried the holograms call them a waste of money.

Noel Paraiso, 50, bought a wristband after seeing a convincing balance demonstration at his office in Orange. He said he noticed no difference from wearing it, so he started researching the claims. He decided to perform a blinded balance test using the yellow Lance Armstrong bands and his hologram.

He said the Armstrong bracelet worked best.

“It was a hoax,” Paraiso said. “It’s all in the mind.”

One website, devicewatch.org, posted an essay by a doctor who debunks the balance test as an “impressive trick demonstration” that creates false impressions of improved strength and balance.

“It’s like the tooth fairy,” wrote Dr. Harriet Hall, a critic of alternative medicine. “Tell me money appears under your pillow, and I will believe you. But that won’t convince me that the tooth fairy did it…The Power Balance phenomenon is easily explained by suggestion, confirmation bias, the placebo response, and other well-known aspects of human psychology that conspire to persuade people that ineffective things work.”

Both companies say they know there are skeptics and offer money-back guarantees.

“I’m sure there are people it doesn’t work for,” said Randy Largent, chief executive of EFX in Mission Viejo. “I’ve never found anything that works for everybody. I know I have done hundreds, if not thousands, of tests and more often than not there has been a discernible effect.”

Richard Alonso of Costa Mesa is a believer. He said a friend gave him a wristband to quell nausea from chemotherapy.

“It stopped me from throwing up,” said Alonso, 48, who now sells the product. “I golf quite a bit and I hit the ball about 40 yards farther. I take it off and I don’t golf as well.

Courtney Perkes has covered the medical beat for the Register since 2005. She was queasy when she watched surgery for the first time (a knee replacement) especially when a drop of blood splattered in her notebook! She loves writing about public health issues as well as the courage and resilience of patients facing illness. Courtney strives to lead a healthy lifestyle that includes yoga and not microwaving plastic. She is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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